U.S. says Syria must comply with chemical arms deal

U.S. says Syria must comply with chemical arms deal

1of21In this citizen journalism image provided by Aleppo Media Center (AMC), an anti-Bashar Assad activist group, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, Syrian residents and rescue workers carry a body from a building damaged by the Syrian forces airplanes in the neighborhood of Qadi Askar in Aleppo, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014. The Aleppo Media Center said the air raid killed and wounded several people. (AP Photo/Aleppo Media Center, AMC)Photo: Uncredited, HOEP

2of21In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Palestinian residents of the besieged refugee camp of Yarmouk carry supplies given to them by the United Nations at the gate of the camp on the southern edge of the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014. The U.N. says 600 food parcels were distributed in the camp where activists say at least 85 people have died as a result of lack of food and medicine since mid-2013. (AP Photo/SANA)Photo: HOPD

3of21In this citizen journalism image made from Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2014 video provided by Nur Media Center, an anti-government activist group, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, men dig 14-month-old Ghina Khalil out of rubble in Aleppo, Syria. The chubby toddler was pulled out after men pulled aside rocks, concrete rubble and dust to free her, caught under a smashed building, bombed by the government forces in the area of Masaraniyeh in Aleppo. (AP Photo/Nour Media Center)Photo: Uncredited, HOEP

4of21In this citizen journalism image made from Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2014 video provided by Nur Media Center, an anti-government activist group, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, men dig 14-month-old Ghina Khalil out of rubble in Aleppo, Syria. The chubby toddler was pulled out after men pulled aside rocks, concrete rubble and dust to free her, caught under a smashed building, bombed by the government forces in the area of Masaraniyeh in Aleppo. (AP Photo/Nur Media Center)Photo: Uncredited, HOEP

5of21FILE - In this Friday, May 14, 2010 file photo, Afghan workers clean a section of the Tarakhil power plant on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan. U.S. federal inspectors say that money is still flowing to Afghan ministries from the U.S. Agency for International Development despite assessments that they can't manage or account for the funding. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan, which oversees Afghan reconstruction, said in a report published Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2014 that external auditing in recent years showed the ministries were unable to account for or manage the funding.(AP Photo/Saurabh Das, File)Photo: Saurabh Das, STF

6of21In this citizen journalism image made from Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2014 video provided by Nur Media Center, an anti-government activist group, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, men dig 14-month-old Ghina Khalil out of rubble in Aleppo, Syria. The toddler was pulled out after men pulled aside rocks, concrete rubble and dust to free her, caught under a smashed building, bombed by the government forces in the area of Masaraniyeh in Aleppo. (AP Photo/Nur Media Center)Photo: Uncredited, HOEP

7of21In this citizen journalism image made from Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2014 video provided by Nur Media Center, an anti-government activist group, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, one of the men holds 14-month-old Ghina Khalil after they dig her out of rubble in Aleppo, Syria. The chubby toddler was pulled out after men pulled aside rocks, concrete rubble and dust to free her, caught under a smashed building, bombed by the government forces in the area of Masaraniyeh in Aleppo. (AP Photo/Nour Media Center)Photo: Uncredited, HOEP

8of21In this citizen journalism image made from Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2014 video provided by Nur Media Center, an anti-government activist group, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, one of the men holds 14-month-old Ghina Khalil after they dig her out of rubble in Aleppo, Syria. The chubby toddler was pulled out after men pulled aside rocks, concrete rubble and dust to free her, caught under a smashed building, bombed by the government forces in the area of Masaraniyeh in Aleppo. (AP Photo/Nur Media Center)Photo: Uncredited, HOEP

9of21FILE - In this Friday, May 14, 2010 file photo, workers gather outside the Tarakhil power plant in the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan. The $305 million diesel power plant represents the biggest single investment the U.S. has made thus far to light up the country. U.S. federal inspectors say that money is still flowing to Afghan ministries from the U.S. Agency for International Development despite assessments that they can't manage or account for the funding. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan, which oversees Afghan reconstruction, said in a report published Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2014 that external auditing in recent years showed the ministries were unable to account for or manage the funding.(AP Photo/Saurabh Das, File)Photo: Saurabh Das, STF

10of21In this citizen journalism image made from Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2014 video provided by Nur Media Center, an anti-government activist group, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, one of the men holds 14-month-old Ghina Khalil after they dig her out of rubble in Aleppo, Syria. The toddler was pulled out after men pulled aside rocks, concrete rubble and dust to free her, caught under a smashed building, bombed by the government forces in the area of Masaraniyeh in Aleppo. (AP Photo/Nur Media Center)Photo: Uncredited, HOEP

11of21In this citizen journalism image made from video filmed shortly after Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2014, and provided by Nur Media Center, an anti-government activist group, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, 14-month-old Ghina Khalil stands on a street after rescued from rubble in Aleppo, Syria. The chubby toddler was pulled out after men pulled aside rocks, concrete rubble and dust to free her, caught under a smashed building, bombed by the government forces in the area of Masaraniyeh in Aleppo on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Nur Media Center)Photo: Uncredited, HOEP

12of21FILE - In this Friday, May 14, 2010 file photo, a guard stands over the Tarakhil power plant in the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, May 14, 2010. The $305 million diesel power plant represents the biggest single investment the U.S. has made thus far to light up the country. U.S. federal inspectors say that money is still flowing to Afghan ministries from the U.S. Agency for International Development despite assessments that they can't manage or account for the funding. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan, which oversees Afghan reconstruction, said in a report published Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2014 that external auditing in recent years showed the ministries were unable to account for or manage the funding.(AP Photo/Saurabh Das, File)Photo: Saurabh Das, STF

13of21In this citizen journalism image made from video filmed shortly after Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2014, and provided by Nur Media Center, an anti-government activist group, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, 14-month-old Ghina Khalil stands on a street after rescued from rubble in Aleppo, Syria. The toddler was pulled out after men pulled aside rocks, concrete rubble and dust to free her, caught under a smashed building, bombed by the government forces in the area of Masaraniyeh in Aleppo on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Nur Media Center)Photo: Uncredited, HOEP

14of21In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, a truck carries U.N. supplies at the besieged refugee camp of Yarmouk on the southern edge of the Syrian capital of Damascus, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014. The U.N. says 600 food parcels were distributed in the camp where activists say at least 85 people have died as a result of lack of food and medicine since mid-2013. (AP Photo/SANA)Photo: HOPD

15of21In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Palestinian residents of the besieged refugee camp of Yarmouk carries supplies given to him by the United Nations at the gate of the camp on the southern edge of the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014. The U.N. says 600 food parcels were distributed in the camp where activists say at least 85 people have died as a result of lack of food and medicine since mid-2013. (AP Photo/SANA)Photo: HOPD

16of21In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Palestinian residents of the besieged refugee camp of Yarmouk carries supplies given to them by the United Nations at the gate of the camp on the southern edge of the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014. The U.N. says 600 food parcels were distributed in the camp where activists say at least 85 people have died as a result of lack of food and medicine since mid-2013. (AP Photo/SANA)Photo: HOPD

17of21This Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014 citizen journalism image provided by Aleppo Media Center (AMC), an anti-Bashar Assad activist group, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrian men helping a wounded man from the scene after a government airstrike in Aleppo, Syria. (AP Photo/Aleppo Media Center, AMC)Photo: HOEP

18of21In this Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014 citizen journalism image provided by Aleppo Media Center (AMC), an anti-Bashar Assad activist group, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a Syrian man carrying the body of a child who was killed following a Syrian government airstrike in Aleppo, Syria. (AP Photo/Aleppo Media Center, AMC)Photo: HOEP

19of21COMBO - This combination of two satellite images released by Human Rights Watch shows the Masha al-Arbâeen neighborhood in Hama, Syria on Sept. 28, 2012, left, and on Oct. 13, 2012. The Syrian government used controlled explosives and bulldozers to raze thousands of residential buildings, in some cases entire neighborhoods, in a campaign that appeared designed to punish civilians sympathetic to the opposition or cause disproportionate harm to them, an international human rights group said Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014. The demolitions took place between July 2012 and July 2013 in seven opposition districts in and around the capital, Damascus, and the central city of Hama, Human Rights Watch said in a new 38-page report. The New York-based group said the deliberate destruction violated international law, and called for an immediate end to the practice. (AP Photo/Human Rights Watch via Digital Globe)Photo: Uncredited, HOPD

20of21COMBO - This combination of three satellite images released by Human Rights Watch shows the Masha al-Arbâeen,neighborhood in Hama, Syria on Sept. 28, 2012, top; on Oct. 3, 2012 and on Oct. 13, 2012. The Syrian government used controlled explosives and bulldozers to raze thousands of residential buildings, in some cases entire neighborhoods, in a campaign that appeared designed to punish civilians sympathetic to the opposition or cause disproportionate harm to them, an international human rights group said Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014. The demolitions took place between July 2012 and July 2013 in seven opposition districts in and around the capital, Damascus, and the central city of Hama, Human Rights Watch said in a new 38-page report. The New York-based group said the deliberate destruction violated international law, and called for an immediate end to the practice.(AP Photo/Human Rights Watch via Digital Globe)Photo: Uncredited, HOPD

21of21AP10thingsToSee - In this Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2014 citizen journalism image made from video provided by the anti-government Nur Media Center, and which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, bystanders rescue 14-month-old Ghina Khalil out of the rubble of a destroyed building after a missile strike in the Masaraniyeh area of Aleppo, Syria. According to the activist who filmed the girl's rescue, five of her sisters also survived, but her mother was killed in the attack and her 10-year-old sister is missing. (AP Photo/Nur Media Center, File)Photo: HOEP

BEIRUT - The United States accused the Syrian government Thursday of using stalling tactics to delay efforts to remove and destroy chemical agents, an indication that the international community's patience is wearing thin over the slow pace of the operation.

The comments, delivered by the U.S. representative to the international chemical weapons watchdog, marked some of the strongest public criticism of Syria's commitment to relinquish its chemical stockpile.

Syria agreed to surrender its arsenal after a deadly chemical attack in August on a rebel-held suburb of Damascus raised the threat of punitive U.S. missile strikes. President Barack Obama has touted the agreement as a victory and a major policy achievement.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is leading the mission to eliminate Syria's 1,300-metric-ton stockpile by June 30.

Under the OPCW's tight timeline, the most toxic chemicals in Syria's arsenal were to have been removed from the country by Dec. 31, but that deadline was missed due to poor security amid Syria's raging civil war as well as other factors. So far, just two small consignments of chemicals have been shipped out.

According to the OPCW timeline, all but 100 tons of chemicals are to be removed by Feb. 5 - a deadline that surely will not be met.